He Wore A Hood (HWAH #1)

12. memories pt. 1

12. memories pt. 1

Anthony's POV

Today was...my birthday.

It was the one day out of every year that I dreaded.

I didn't feel the urge to celebrate my existence.

I couldn't remember the exact moment that it started, but at some part in my life I started wishing I had never been born- that I was just trapped in nothingness.

Or maybe born as a phoenix, made to burn and be reborn over and over again.

That was the life I should have had.

I was disgusting...but so was she.

•••

"Tony?"

Graciela with her pretty black curls called out to me. She was only 11 years old, and growing up to be quite the little pretty fucker.

I'd be damned if one of those dumb ass middle-schooler boys even looked at her funny though.

11 years ago, a woman by the name of Mina knocked on our door with a stroller and a newborn Graciela resting inside.

My mother had been the one to answer the door.

I remember clinging to my mother's leg and wildly questioning what was going on.

I remember the look of recognition on my father's face as he appeared behind my mother and saw the woman with the stroller

I remember the tears, the screaming in spanish.

And I remember what Mina said last-

"I have cancer- and there's a 0.01% chance that I'll live. It's terminal, I'm- I don't know how long I have-"

Ignoring the screaming of my mother, she locked eyes with her.

"I am..so sorry for the pain I have caused."

"-but please"

She broke out into a loud sob. Even at my young age, I remember how pain-filled she sounded.

"Take my baby. Take her, raise her as your own. Please put aside your hatred for me and give her a home. Please-"

My father had answered, tears were streaming down his face but his voice came out steady.

"These are the consequences of my actions. I will take care of the baby, she's mine."

And then my mother began to sob. She didn't stop either, I could hear her even after she locked herself in the guest bedroom.

I didn't understand it back then, but now I knew.

It was the sound of her heart breaking.

My father cheated, my father got another woman pregnant, my father betrayed my mother.

And my mother?

My mother broke.

Before she died, my father and I visited Mina.

My mother refused to even look at Graciela, so we left her with my grandma instead.

The hospital was cold, the patients seemed already lifeless, but then we spotted Mina.

She was a white woman, with wavy brown hair and brown eyes.

Her eyes crinkled in the corners, and her face was slightly aged like my father's- but she was beautiful.

Even as she lay there, with a bald head and tinted gray skin.

Her eyes were tired, but most of all..terrified.

I was there when she died.

She had smiled at the sight of my father, but shortly after she began to cry.

"I don't want to die. I'm dying- i don't want to. I'm scared"

Her voice was raspy and cracked, but it was clear of what she was saying.

I had twiddled with my fingers. I didn't know what was happening exactly, but I had an idea.

I remember my father kissing her forehead gently and telling her Graciela was in the best hands. I remember her sobbing into his shirt for a moment before she let out a loud gasp.

And then her breathing stopped.

Her eyes were wiped of emotion.

"!Joder!"

Her body slumped down into the bed as her last breath left her, she didn't die peacefully-

She died terrified.

My father continued to curse in spanish and then he demanded me to call for a nurse. Never mind the fact that I was only 7.

I didn't know if my father had loved Mina, I didn't know a thing about Mina besides what I had seen. I just knew that something was wrong.

After that day, everything changed for the worst-and I still didn't know who to blame.